The Urge To Make Games Harder

My Twitter - / realiamlufa
My Discord Blog - / discord
When we make games harder than they were meant to be, many problems follow. Balance gets thrown in the trash, grinds become longer, and gameplay becomes punishing. And yet we make games harder, often to a ridiculous extent. We insist on suffering through what should be a rewarding activity by restricting ourselves with unreasonable challenges. Why do we do it?
#speedrun #nuzlocke #eldenring

[@HeyAyami]

me opening all my hard games after this video and closing it within 5minutes

[@iAmLufa]

Me doing the same thing with easy games

[@grayfox9869]

Me going back to catch all aces (mihaly prepare to get cooked by yourself)

[@theJellyjoker]

My favorites sit right between "I wish this would suck more" to "I like the way this sucks"

[@izzymosley1970]

One category of challenge run I think you missed is the classic score attack were you play the game but try and get a high score. And the funny thing about score attacks is that often times games with a score counter are very difficult anyway meaning to player is doubling up on the difficulty.

[@Phirestar]

I love self-imposed restrictions and modified game rules (like randomizers), because they often require you to come up with novel solutions to problems and play the game in a way that’s different to how you normally would. It becomes sort of like a puzzle or riddle, where you have to find an answer yourself.
I’m not so enthusiastic about speedrunning or stuff like hitless challenges. While I do love watching other people pull them off, I struggle with having the patience to get through dozens and hundreds, sometimes even _thousands_ of failed attempts. The whole task of beating your head against the brick wall and slowly chipping away at it… yeah, not ideal for people with shorter fuses.

[@AXII_.]

love your videos!

[@alijanaby5270]

My biggest achievement is killing isshin the sword saint, i got pure dopamine from it👌

[@ekuyomi]

11:13 you cant hide from me 😤😤😤😤

[@heftyx3]

DUDE! Can’t believe I’m just now seeing this! Typical Lufa W! There’s something special about beating a self imposed challenge. Beating a difficult game feels like you’re defeating the game. Beating a self imposed challenge is more like beating the expectations you have of yourself. Even if you only ever do it once, I highly recommend trying one! The satisfaction of beating it is tough to describe. You’ve gotta feel it.

[@iAmLufa]

You know for sure😂 the jump king king

[@heftyx3]

@@iAmLufa 🤣💀

[@00Revell]

I am not a gamer in the conventional sense - I did not grow up playing video games for any committed amount of time, and I only recently (past five years or so) been starting to actually try them out. To me, adding difficulty to games is kinda odd because learning to play games and being comfortable with them is, in the first place, the challenge for me, both on a physical level and on an emotional level (the anxiety of not having the same / similar experiences growing up as your peers). I understand the gist of what your video is saying, but it might take time before I can truly appreciate the concept of self-imposed challenges in gaming.

[@derpygamer3194]

I like Elden Ring

[@puffmogie]

Fire video managed a deathless dark souls run and completed a few nuzlockes so this really resonated with me 😂

[@uliveulearnandregret]

I modded No More Heroes 3 and beat the whole game on 1 health, anything could kill me in one hit, the bosses, the enemies, the deathman arcade machine...

[@TacoCatHelp]

I wonder what roguelikes mean in the context of this video. A lot of the points still apply without having to apply any external challenges.

[@amampathak]

Very interesting video, and yeah there's totally a community surrounding this style of gameplay. I think this taps into to "challenge" mindset gamers
[Highly recommend checking out quantic foundry 12 gaming motivations]
For an Immersion enjoyer like me, I find this to be the antithesis of enjoying a game fully.
Would I rather like to play Arkham city enjoying the views, gliding over the city and immersing myself as Batman really listening to the dialogue, or rush through it all in a speedrun without taking in the beauty of the atmosphere.
Would I rather have a full party in a Baldurs gate 3 which gives it life and flavor, or play the game solo in the hardest difficulty, save scumming to beat some boss in the 50th try?
Would I rather explore Elden ring's world with different weapons, different spirit ashes and trying various ashes of war, or would I rather stay lvl 1 have a club in my head and head straight to fight the tree sentinel 100th time in a row?
Would I play total war with the same two units, or experiment with an army that has every archetype?
I totally get that the "payoff" of this challenges is what people are looking after, but personally I find immersion to be the more important factor when playing through a game. Nothing against the "challenge" players, but they seem to also breed a culture of toxicity [just look at the git gut soulslike purists] but then again, its also true that watching a video of a streamer attempting a challenge is far more fun than a regular stream.
Nice video.

[@KavinArulnambi]

ABSOLUTELY CAPTIVATING VIDEO, AMAZING WORK!!!!!!!!

[@amampathak]

I think this taps into the very CORE of why you want to play games. Are you trying to experience a game or Beat a game?
I could beat Fallout new vegas in under 30 hours. But my playthrough was over 100 hours, and I loved every minute of it. It was about the journey, not the destination.

[@joshuajose2745]

@@amampathak 💯💯

[@PrismaAce]

enjoyed this as a terraria hardcore grinder
good vid

[@Markm8]

I beat pikmin 2 with no deaths and never useing the whistle, so I understand pain. Not to mention the borderlinds 2 bs ive been doing for years

[@jeffereybumpkin1839]

I just don’t play games enough for this

[@itkeeks]

I was deeply emotionally invested in pewdiepies hardcore Minecraft play through

[@Cute_Deer_Friend]

Goat

[@danythegr8214]

im gonna create multiple alt accounts to give you more subscribers

[@Whatyt48]

Fart

[@decoder_main6875]

Wait, where's your views and subscribers????

[@iAmLufa]

It’s pretty difficult for a video to take off unless it’s on something popular, this video’s concept is too abstract

[@spliffzilla98]

are you polish?

[@iAmLufa]

Partly

[@Trap-sv7ij]

I hate you for using this song at the start 😭

[@jaelmayer]

10th

[@baranalde1]

1 hour and 60 views, bro fell off 💀